Israel says fighter jets target head of Hamas intelligence

GAZA — The Israeli Air Force says its fighter jets have struck a “compound belonging to the head of the intelligence department in the Hamas terrorist organisation,” the media reported.

Israeli planes have struck a number of targets in the Gaza Strip since militants crossed into Israeli territory on Saturday.

Palestinian authorities say more than 250 people have been killed.

The sounds of explosions are continuous in Gaza City, BBC reported.

Israel’s military says there are still eight “points of engagement” with Hamas militants inside its territory, although it claims to have regained control of 22 locations in the country’s south. Hamas said “fierce fighting” continues.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country is going into a “long and difficult war”, which he said had been “forced on us by a murderous attack by Hamas”

Israel has also launched retaliatory strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip, and has advised people there to take shelter – the air strikes have killed more than 250 people, Palestinian officials say, BBC reported.

At least 250 Israelis have reportedly been killed, and dozens – perhaps as many as 100, according to the Israeli Embassy in the US – have been kidnapped, following Hamas’ ground, air and sea offensive, BBC reported.

Fears of a huge ground invasion of Gaza are growing after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to turn the besieged Palestinian enclave into a “deserted island” in response to the worst attack his country has suffered in decades, Al Jazeera reported.

The pledge came after gunmen from Hamas, which governs Gaza, rampaged through Israeli towns and killed at least 250 people on Saturday while retreating with soldier and civilian hostages in the deadliest day of violence for Israel since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago.